Bathroom rugs have conventionally been constructed of a tufted fabric having a raised surface of yarn tufts on one side of a backing material. Nylon, or in some cases other synthetic filaments such as polyester, have predominately been utilized as the yarns for tufting the bathroom rug fabric because of the resiliency, bulk and strength provided by this type of yarn.
Yarn manufacturers have engineered tufting denier nylon filaments, which are normally sold in filament ends of nominal 1000 to 1200 denier, to have the luster level and hand of cotton, while retaining the resiliency, strength and performance of nylon. However, the absorbency of cotton was not obtained in the yarn and they are considered hydrophobic. When tufted fabrics utilizing these tufting denier hydrophobic nylon or other synthetic yarns were fabricated into bathroom rugs, absorbency and drying rate of water or moisture dropped on these rugs from a person stepping out of a shower or bath tub created problems of the water pooling in certain areas of the bathroom rug and thus required an inordinate period of time for drying of the rug.
More recently, hydrophilic microdenier nylon has been developed by yarn producers to have absorbency characteristics of cotton or other natural fibers. This newly developed microdenier nylon has been sold in filament ends of about 90 denier for use in garment fabrics, particularly for sports apparel, to wick moisture from one side of the fabric to the other side of the fabric away from the skin of the wearer or to disburse the moisture throughout the fabric for quick drying of the fabric and to keep the side of the fabric in contact with the skin of the wearer in a dryer state. This microdenier nylon has never been considered practical for use in tufted fabrics of the type being considered by this invention since it would be inordinately expensive to produce a filament end in the tufting denier range of more than 500 and preferably of about 1000 to 1200.